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The Uttar Pradesh government has officially started paddy procurement at the minimum support price for the 2023-24 Kharif season from Sunday. The actual purchase of paddy will begin once the crop is harvested and arrives at agricultural markets.
The  harvesting is likely to be delayed in some areas of the state due to late sowing of the crop due to erratic monsoon.
Official agencies appointed by the state government have made ample arrangements at paddy purchase centres to ensure farmers face no difficulties. Special instructions have been issued to department officials and nodal agencies for this purpose.
This season, the UP government is purchasing paddy at increased MSP. The new MSP rates for common and Grade A paddy are Rs 2,183 per quintal and Rs 2,203 per quintal respectively. Last year, these rates were Rs 2,040 per quintal for common paddy and Rs 2,060 per quintal for Grade A paddy.
This season, the nodal agency for paddy procurement, Food and Civil Supplies department has set the target of procuring  70 lakh MT  of paddy. Special care has been taken to ensure that farmers do not face any problem in bringing paddy to the centre.
Additionally, the department is making transparent arrangements for immediate payment to farmers after crop purchase. For this, the centres have been geo-tagged with the help of Remote Sensing Application Centre (RSAC).
The farmers intending to sell their agricultural produce to the  government will have to  register themselves on the Food and Civil Supplies department’s portal www.fcs.up.gov.in. The procurement of paddy will be carried out through the Electronic Point of Purchase (E-PoP) machines with biometric authentication of farmers.  Besides, on the lines of wheat procurement, paddy will also be procured through PFMS portal. The payment for the purchase of paddy made through the portal will reach the farmer’s account within 72 hours.
Procurement of paddy has started in Bareilly, Moradabad, Meerut, Saharanpur, Agra, Aligarh, Jhansi, Hardoi, Sitapur and Lakhimpur from Sunday, while in Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Unnao, Chitrakoot, Kanpur, Ayodhya, Devipatan, Basti, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Varanasi, Mirzapur and Prayagraj the procurement will start from November 1.
All procurement centres will operate from 9 am to 5 pm. Farmers can obtain information about registration, land area verification, procurement, and MSP payment through the department’s mobile app, UP KISHAN MITRA, from the comfort of their homes.
State government has arranged for the direct payment of paddy prices to farmers’ Aadhaar-linked bank accounts through the PFMS for this procurement season. For this, it is necessary for farmers to have an active bank account linked with Aadhaar and mapped on the NPCI portal by the bank. In addition, a nomination system has been implemented for the convenience of farmers. Moreover, farmers who had previously registered for wheat and paddy procurement in the Kharif marketing year 2023-24 do not need to re-register for paddy sales. They only need to update and lock their registration.